Ifelt a bead of moisture gather and begin to slide down the side of my face

“I guess I’m a little warm,” I thought with a sense of uncertainty.

Such uncertainty from discomfort was unusual, because it was about 9:30 p.m. The sun was hiding behind the Stansbury Mountains and my family room should have been filled with cool, conditioned air. I got up to look at the thermostat, flipped on a light and stared at the temperature — 81 degrees! Forced air was coming from the vents, but it wasn’t cool. I turned off the air conditioner and contemplated a costly problem.

Luckily, I knew who to call first thing in the morning.

My friend, Gary Christensen, is a heating and air conditioning expert. I called him and a few minutes later his van pulled into my driveway. He had my compressor opened, hooked up to his diagnostic tools, cleaned and operating perfectly before 8:30 a.m.

“It’s running well now,” he said.

“It’s past its expected life span, so I thought I’d need a new one,” I said.

“No. It’s running well. Here’s the thing. It’s not usually a big issue, but a combination of a couple of small things that cause a problem,” he said.

Gary taught as we listened to the whirring of the compressor’s heat exhaust fan.

“If you pay attention to three small details everything will run well most of the time,” he said.

Here is Gary’s advice about how to keep your house and yourself cool.

Keep your internal filters clean. Make sure to keep external clutter away. Maintain good air flow from the outside in.

Gary said, “You don’t need to spend a lot of money on expensive filters. Just buy good quality that doesn’t restrict the air flow too much.”

Life is a lot more fun when you and I don’t decide to make it too make it more restrictive than it needs to be. My friend Dianne Merrill says, “Try to say yes as much as possible! Nobody likes to hear no all the time!”

So, say yes as much as possible.

Say yes, when it comes to getting rid of clutter in your life. Ask yourself: Will adding this cause me to stop paying attention to what is really important to me? Just because you and I like to say yes, doesn’t mean we don’t know how to say no when needed. Maintaining space to “breathe” is critical to happiness.

Relationships are the breath of life! Gary would call this, maintaining good air-flow from the outside in. Surrounding yourself with good people willing to reciprocate a fulfilling connection will always enhance quality of living.

Lynn Butterfield lives in Erda and is a managing broker for a real estate company.

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